Monday, February 11, 2013

Daily Telegraph: How jihadist group Jabhat al-Nusra is taking over Syria's revolution

The British newspaper Daily Telegraph has just published a very interesting article which suggests that foreign fighters belonging to a number of militant jihadi groups, many of whom claim to be loyal to al Qaeda, are threatening to take over the Syrian insurgency, which for the past two years has sought to bring down the Syrian government. The most prominent of these groups is the Nusra Front (Jabhat al-Nusra), which is very well funded and currently controls an estimated several hundred foreign fighters in northern Syria.

And in recent weeks it is Jabhat al-Nusra, a radical jihadist group blacklisted by the US as terrorists and a group that wants Syria to be an uncompromising Islamic state governed by sharia, that is holding sway.

The group is well funded – probably through established global jihadist networks – in comparison to moderates. Meanwhile pro-democracy rebel group commanders say money from foreign governments has all but dried up because of fears over radical Islamists.